We opted for an IKEA kitchen, because of the very competitive prices (we were quoted up to 5 times the price in other places!), and because I kinda fell in love with the dark LAXARBY fronts a good while ago. I've pretty much been remodelling the kitchen in my head since I moved in two years ago, and had a pretty good idea what I was after. I didn't want an all white kitchen which seems to be the most common choice around here, but I still wanted it to feel light and airy. The old kitchen had as many cupboards crammed into it as physically possible, but I wanted it to feel more open. Besides, I used about half of those cupboards. And I wanted plenty of counter space, without too much clutter. I wanted it to have a contemporary feel, but I also wanted it to go with the rest of the house, and make sure my industrial stuff and my old hand me downs didn't feel out of place.
Now, there's two things we'd like to do still. First, we plan on building in the microwave in the end top cupboard. There's plenty of space, we just haven't got around to it yet. Second, we have one of those magnetic knife strips that we haven't mounted yet, as we haven't quite decided on where to put it. Suggestions?
So what did we do to this space? First, we gutted it. We got rid of all the old cupboards, countertops and white goods, the flooring, and the three layers of wallpaper. The latter took us forever, and was a real test of patience. We then put in new flooring, and covered the walls with a wallpaper made for painting, before we added three coats of white paint. While we were painting everything white, I also decided to add a pop of color, and painted half of the balcony door in a bright yellow.
For the bottom cupboards, we chose the black-brown LAXARBY fronts with FÅGLAVIK handles. The sink is the double bowl DOMSJØ sink with a RINGSKAAR tap that pulls out and can reach all the corners of the sink. The dishwasher was the only IKEA white good we ended up with, the RENGØRA integrated dishwasher. The fridge is a Samsung side-by-side, the fan from Bosch and the cooker and tops from Miele. The counter tops are PERSONLIG laminate countertops in light oak. They're textured and look nice and we're so happy with them. We were a bit limited in terms of which countertops we could order because our countertop is so long, and we wanted something durable and easy to maintain. Check and check.
The top cupboards have RÅSDAL fronts in white ash that pop open if you push them. We opted to keep them handleless so that the they'd blend in as much as possible to keep it feeling spacious. We first planned on having the OMLOPP lights under the cupboards, but our electrician had pretty strong feelings against these lights and made us get UTRUSTA ones in stead, which come with a dimmer, extra power outlets and handy little hooks as well.
Once the kitchen was installed, Graeme did the tiling. Our first attempt together ended up being so squint and horrible that I had to call my mother for emotional support. She came over and assured me that it was fine, until she realized we were still able to take it all down and start over--then the truth came out and she pretty much insisted we take it down and try again. The following day I went away for my second hen party, and when I woke up the day after a bit worse for wear, Graeme had completed the whole tiling on his own. Well played, Graeme, well played.
Lastly, we have Bo's little food station. Not much has changed here, but I decided to include a picture of it as she sleeps in a fruit basket and eats her food out of tea cups. And cause she decided to pose so nicely for the camera!
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